Release

Of the 55 or more terrorist groups operating on Canadian soil, the Liberal Government facing political pressure for not supporting the US war on Iraq is slowly moving to shore up domestic security by banning a few more foreign terror organizations present on Canadian soil.

Friday April 4, 2003

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Ottawa has banned seven more foreign groups from operating in Canada, saying they have "knowingly engaged in terrorist activity", officials said Friday April 4, 2003.

It added three Colombian groups, as well as groups from Uzbekistan, Southeast Asia, Spain and the occupied territories, to a list of outlawed movements that now numbers 26.

Canadian law provides for their assets to be frozen and makes it a crime to participate in, or contribute to, their activities or deal in their property or finances.

The groups banned are:

-- Jemaah Islamiah, a regional militant Muslim network in Southeast Asia blamed by officials for the Bali bombings last October that killed 202 people

-- the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militant faction that mainly targets settlers and soldiers in the occupied territories

-- the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which has long sided with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda

-- the Basque separatist movement ETA

-- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Marxist group

-- the right-wing paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia

-- the National Liberation Army, a leftist rebel group in Colombia."